Public Housing Residents Get U.s. Help Against Gun Makers

December 8, 1999|By DAVID STOUT The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In a move to force the firearms industry to adopt safer ways of doing business, the federal government said Tuesday that it was preparing a lawsuit against gun makers on behalf of the 3 million people who live in public housing projects, where shootings have taken a heavy toll for years.

The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have been laying the groundwork for the suit in recent months in hopes that the threat of federal action would intensify pressure on the gun industry to change how it makes and sells weapons, officials said.

The Clinton administration has decided to throw its weight behind suits filed by more than two dozen cities against gun companies in hopes that a far-reaching settlement might be achieved once and for all, saving lives and enabling conscientious gun makers and dealers to do business, said Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Bruce Reed, President Clinton's domestic-policy adviser.

Cuomo said the federal goal is a settlement, not a drawn-out lawsuit. He said if no settlement is reached, the government's suit would be filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of the nation's 3,200 public-housing authorities -- enclaves where the government spends $1 billion a year on security, but where many children are so afraid of stray bullets that they sleep in bathtubs.

"Enough is enough," Cuomo said.

There was no immediate response from executives in the firearms industry.

Reed said that more than 500 murders are committed in a typical year among the 100 largest housing projects, with 70 percent of those involving firearms. These statistics, as well as accidental shootings involving children who find hidden guns, give the housing authorities strong legal standing to sue, Reed said.

Reed said that the federal government seeks curbs on advertising; compulsory child-safety locks on handguns and stricter rules on sales and distribution.

Cuomo and Reed said that their goal is a "global settlement" with the gun interests, not unlike that which was reached with the tobacco industry.